High winds toppled acres of trees in July of 2016. High winds, high waves and snow in October 2017. More snow and dangerous waves on Lake Superior last month.

The occurrence - and recurrence - of severe storms is a topic of conversation these days, especially among the folks tasked with putting the damaged Lakewalk back together. In fact, repairs from last fall's damage weren't even complete when the April 15 storm wrecked parts of it all over again.

Hartley Nature Center is closed for the remainder of this week, after straight line winds in excess of 70 mph caused "trees down everywhere" in the park, blocking trails, damaging the nature playscape and the yurt and leaving Hartley still without power almost a week later. It's a possibly hazardous - and definitely expensive situation as Hartley staff and the city continue to assess the damage and decide what happens next.

The growls of generators are competing with the snarls of chainsaws and the rumble of heavy equipment in some Duluth neighborhoods, still ... but even when the power comes back, it's not likely to quiet down any time soon.

Once the hundreds (thousands?) of downed trees are off power lines and streets - then what?

Meteorologist Dave Anderson had to go into work before he could look at the radar and gather data from all his other weather instruments about the storm that wrought havoc in the Northland last week ...

That's because he, like so many other families, lost power when the storm blew through around 3:30am Thursday morning.

And although a drive through affected neighborhoods like Dave's may tell you everything you want to know about the storm ... meteorologically speaking, it's really interesting.

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